Undertale (Seeking Collection and Recommendation Votes)

The next morning at ten o'clock, in an office building in Magic City.

Chen Xu had just finished signing the lease agreement with the agent and the landlord, and was sitting on the sofa chatting with Yang Xin and Ruan Ningxue.

"Chen Xu, this office of yours must cost a lot in rent every month, right?" Yang Xin asked casually, looking at the surrounding layout.

"Yeah, I signed for three months for now. The rent itself is manageable, but the main expenses are the game development machines and other office equipment."

For rent, it was five yuan per square meter per day. He had rented two connected rooms totaling 160 square meters.

Just the rent alone was 24,000 yuan a month, with property management fees of 20 yuan per square meter per month on top of that.

Of course, if he went to a smaller city, this cost might only be a tenth of that.

But that was clearly unrealistic, after all, the gap in talent between small cities and big cities was still too large.

"That's simple. My company over there just shut down, and all kinds of development machines are useless now—they're all ready to go. When the time comes, Chen Xu, you can just give me whatever you think is fair." Yang Xin beside him took charge generously.

"But speaking of which, are we the only two core developers in this company?" Yang Xin said to Chen Xu.

Currently, for the company, counting himself, there were four employees in total.

Yang Xin was handling game development with him, while the other two were former employees of Yang Xin's company.

One was in charge of finance and administration, and the other was in charge of operations.

After testing both of their work capabilities, Chen Xu had brought them on board as well.

"Yeah, it's just the two of us for now. The core team is missing a lead artist!" Chen Xu sighed, then glanced at Ruan Ningxue, who was holding an ice cream bar in her hand.

In Chen Xu's plan, besides himself, he also needed someone with a certain level of artistic skill.

And Ruan Ningxue was his target.

As for the team only having three people, Chen Xu wasn't worried about that.

After all, the game development industry in this world was different from his previous life. A three-person core development team was enough for Chen Xu's current plans.

For things like numerical design, level planning, and core design, Chen Xu could handle them himself.

The vast majority of the remaining content, such as art modeling and output, could mostly be outsourced to external teams.

Because none of these were technical tasks—they just required a lot of time.

Although outsourcing these aspects would definitely cost more, compared to time, Chen Xu was more willing to invest money rather than time.

The only thing left was whether he could 'con' Ruan Ningxue into joining the team.

After seeing Ruan Ningxue's artistic skills during the development of "Magic Mirror," Chen Xu had his eyes on her.

"That's right, Ningxue, join us... Oh, by the way, CEO Chen, what's our company called?" Yang Xin suddenly thought of something and asked.

"Nebula Games." Chen Xu said with some helplessness.

"Actually, senior, I don't think there's much difference between comics and games. They're both about presenting the stories in your heart to readers and players." Chen Xu looked at Ruan Ningxue in front of him and said seriously, "And in the future, Nebula Games will also have a comics division. For certain games, we'll release corresponding comic volumes and such. When that time comes, senior, if you're interested, you can absolutely continue working on that content."

Games spawning comics, or comics adapted into games—these were all very normal operations.

And unlike his previous life, where comic-based games were mostly just cash grabs on fan loyalty, in this parallel world, as far as Chen Xu understood, although most game design concepts lagged behind his previous life, comic-based games alone were a standout success.

Hearing Chen Xu's words, Ruan Ningxue showed a tempted expression. Finally, as if she had made up her mind, she nodded and said, "Then from now on, I'll have to call you CEO Chen, junior!"

"It's just a title, senior. Call me whatever feels natural." Seeing Ruan Ningxue join, Chen Xu also broke into a smile.

"Xiaoxue, why did you agree so readily? I've painted you the same kind of pie before!" Yang Xin beside her showed a speechless expression.

Although Ruan Ningxue's joining made her happy too, the key point was that she had tried to persuade her countless times before without success, so why did it work when it was Chen Xu?

"Sister Xin, yours was pure pie in the sky. Even if you had one successful game, I wouldn't have considered it without a second thought." Ruan Ningxue looked speechless.

Chen Xu had "Magic Mirror" as a safety net, plus a very clear direction for the company's development. On your end, the more games you made, the smaller the company got, and the fewer the people.

"Alright, to celebrate senior joining, let me lay out some of the upcoming plans." Chen Xu looked at the two of them.

Hearing Chen Xu's words, even though they had just joined and didn't even have office equipment yet, both Yang Xin and Ruan Ningxue showed serious and expectant expressions.

After all, they hadn't joined Chen Xu's company to coast along—they also wanted to achieve results.

"Next, we're going to develop a new game. A metagame type of game." Chen Xu said.

Yang Xin and the other showed confused expressions.

Metagame?

"Metagame? We're not continuing to develop 18R games?" Ruan Ningxue was a bit surprised.

"Of course not. 18R games are just our starting capital." Chen Xu shook his head.

He had no intention of building something like ILLUSION in this parallel world.

"But CEO Chen, what kind of game is a metagame?" Yang Xin was a bit baffled. She had developed three games and even earned a game designer certification.

But she had never even heard of this so-called metagame.

As for Ruan Ningxue beside her, there was no need to even mention it.

"Simply put, a metagame refers to a game where content that breaks out of the game itself appears, creating direct interaction between the game and the player themselves."

"Have you read 'Don Quixote'? In the novel, the author occasionally steps into the story and comments on the plot." Chen Xu explained.

"Breaking the fourth wall?" Yang Xin was still a bit confused, but Ruan Ningxue seemed to have an inkling.

"That's right." Chen Xu nodded with a smile.

As for meta games, in this parallel world, Chen Xu had taken note that some types had already appeared, but they had yet to form a proper system.

This included novels, comics, and other media—they had seen some application as well, but likewise hadn't coalesced into a distinct category.

"Next, our new project will be a metagame. The game's name is 'Undertale.' I'll go into more detail when we start work, and I'll fill you in then."

"Of course, besides 'Undertale,' during this period we'll also be developing a DLC character pack for 'Magic Mirror'—to sell a few more copies while the buzz hasn't died down yet."